Month: August 2019

Yes, once again we have 90-100 degree weather, but yesterday we got it coupled with rain. A short, probably no more than 15 minutes, thunderstorm down pour. This is just the way Texas likes to do rain. Keep it hot, and let it pour. Who knows why Texas does it this way? I don’t.

When I check out weather radar, you might see little patches of rain. And during this time of the year, it may develop slowly or suddenly. One minute its nice and sunny, maybe a few puffy clouds, then 10 minutes later you realize its dark outside. Then of course, it begins to pour. It starts with a few fat drops going splat all over the place. Then those few drops get their friends together and that heavy droplet sprinkle becomes a down pour. Yesterday we even got it with lightning and thunder.

Today we still have some clouds, but at least they are still light in color. Once that changes, if they become dark, I’ll move us all inside and wait for the rain. Not sure if it will rain, but if the clouds are dark there’s a pretty good chance it will happen.

We’ll see how today’s weather progresses. The next few days are still supposed to hover around 100. So much for it cooling down. It has to cool down sometime, I’m just not sure when that will happen.

Is this crazy Austin weather, or should we consider this the new norm? That is anybody’s guess. But we are still in a heat wave. Today, Sat. Aug 17, 2019 is set to be the 26th day this season with 100+ degree weather. Kind of warm, what can I say.

One nice thing about the design of this new house is that we have a patio that is only open to sun on one side. In our case that means that it is in shade all the time. I don’t know how that will be in the winter time, but right now that means you can sit outside and still be in shade all day. It also means we can give the dogs a place to stay outside in the shade all day long. Yes, we keep a large gravity feed water bottle outside for the dogs so they always have fresh water.

The other nice thing about this patio area is it has steps down to the grass. Not many steps, just a couple. But the landing area and steps area means we actually have a small area that gets shade in the afternoon. The only other areas that get any shade are close to the wood fencing on the sides. I’ve used this area next to the landing to place my felt planting pots. If you saw the previous post you would have seen the area I’m talking about.

This area gets just enough shade that the plants in the pots are actually coming up. My peas, beets, and lettuce have all sprouted. I have to keep them well watered, but so far they are still alive and growing. In this weather I consider that an accomplishment.

Hopefully the weather service will be correct and we will get some relief from this heat later this month. But who knows if that will happen, and how much heat relief we will get.

Its Texas, just wait and see.

The new garden is nothing like the old garden. The old garden was a very large back fenced yard with rock walled raised beds. The new yard, not even close. This is a small, fenced, regular sized lot. Its like a U around the house, with wood privacy fence on the sides, and metal fencing in the back.

The nice thing is the back butts up to a green belt area. My understanding is this area will not be built on, in part because its not all that wide nor deep. You can easily hear the neighbors on the other side of the greenbelt.

But what this design also means is the sides of the house, with the wood privacy fence do not get a lot of sunlight. There’s enough sun to grow grass, and as the area opens to the back yard there is a lot more sun. So in the back area, even along the side fence line there is enough sun to plant and probably grow quite a big. The back area with the metal fence has what wild animals we get back there. So far we have seen deer and some rabbits. Both potential veggie harvesters.

But that’s okay. I like being able to look at the deer and animals we get. We have does and fawns, though I have seen a buck elsewhere in the community.

But the yard is easily large enough for some plants and the dogs. Actually in many ways its a great size for the dogs. Its large enough for them to run in, but not so large its tough to catch them, provided the gates are closed.

A couple of weeks ago a friend came over and helped get plants into the ground. So the fruit trees and roses we brought with us now have permanent homes instead of just living in pots. Now not everything ended up in the ground. We still have quite a few large pots with plants in them.

Even though we don’t have as much yard are as before its still possible to garden. Since I do have less room, and I expect we will have more work to do in the garden before long, I have decided to make use of fabric pots.

Now if you are wondering what fabric pots are, they are just that. Instead of pots being made out of some sort of hard material – plastic, metal, ceramic, etc., these are like thick felt material. When not in use they fold flat, or at least pretty flat. They come in a variety of sizes. And, as you can see, they have handles on them so you can pick them up and move them around.

These are not very large pots, just five gallon. If you look online you can see their size, not large. These five were filled from left over potting mix from the in ground plantings. That’s also why they are not filled to the brim with dirt.

Where these are easy to use, and a good temporary solution they do have drawbacks. They are cloth (of some sort) so they can dry out easily. Also if you don’t have enough soil in them, they don’t stand up well. They will break down, and can tear (watch out for dog claws!). If you are growing something like carrots, beets, or potatoes (anything that grows below ground) you need to check how tall these stand so you get something deep enough. I wouldn’t want to grow potatoes in this small of a fabric pot, but a larger size might work.

So I’m trying them out to see how they do. I’ll keep you posted.